County pours $22M into project to widen Loop 1604

By Jeff B. Flinn, Managing Editor :
March 5, 2013

A $22.9 million construction project that will widen a 2.6-mile stretch of Loop 1604, from Interstate 10 to Lower Seguin Road in Converse, from two lanes to a four-lane divided highway will go to bid later this month.

Texas Department of Transportation and Bexar County public works officials outlined the project for the public at a Feb. 27 meeting at Judson High School. David Wegmann, Bexar County engineer services manager, explained the final design, which expands Loop 1604 from its existing two-lane configuration to a four-lane divided roadway, with two 2,100-foot bridges. Construction is expected to start later this fall. Wegmann said the 18-month project should be completed in early 2015.

Bexar County Precinct 4 Commissioner Tommy Adkisson said this expansion “has been a long time coming.”

“Loop 1604 has become a huge artery for a lot of traffic,” Adkisson told the 25-30 people in attendance. “This area's growth is astounding; it's growing by leaps and bounds. If we don't get our infrastructure together, we'll live out our lives in a lot of traffic. And my time is valuable, as is yours.”

Wegmann said average daily traffic reports on the 2-6-mile stretch logged 25,000 vehicles a day in 2012, a figure forecast to go as high as 39,200 in 2032, a 56 percent increase in just two decades.

Renee Green, Bexar County director of public works/county engineer, said a rash of fatalities in the area in the past several years brought the safety factor to light.

“This has been an area of some serious safety issues, with a lot of 18-wheeler traffic, and there's been some fatalities, some head-on collisions, so this will eliminate that,” Green said.

Phase one of the project will build two northbound 12-foot travel lanes while traffic continues to flow along the current two-lane roadway. Once phase one is complete, traffic will be diverted onto the new surface, allowing contractors to replace the existing roadway with new lanes.

“This should, hopefully, be a painless construction project, because while we build one part of the roadway, construction will be removed from the public,” Green said. “Then, when that is complete, we'll move the traffic onto that side and go back over. Everything will be built in existing right-of-way.”

Green said the county's partnership with TxDOT was essential in making this project happen.

“This is a TxDOT roadway, simply put; Bexar County will build the project, finance it, and TxDOT will pay us back,” she said. “We'll also use the Advanced Transportation District sales tax to cover the financing costs and some of the soft costs, like the engineering.”

This is one of six projects that Bexar County is currently operating with “pass-through financing” in conjunction with TxDOT.

“What these six projects represent is approximately $175 million worth of badly needed transportation improvements that would not be done if ... Bexar County and commissioners hadn't stepped up to the table and worked a deal with TxDOT and got into a partnership, so that we could build what's needed today,' she said. “And it will not cost Bexar County taxpayers any money.”